Billy did a lot of catch-as-catch-can training, in his later years, so while they are not interviews, as such, you can find him showing people how to do certain things on Youtube.
Thanks SaxonWolf(great name) I'm in touch with Jake Shannon who is in this video. I train submission wrestling myself and find the connection between old pro wrestling and shoot grappling fascinating.
Thanks Jay, I also trained in submission wrestling when I was doing MMA, many years ago (along with Greco Roman and Freestyle), and was lucky enough to train with a guy who had learnt self defence, when he was younger, from a veteran Judo/Ju-Jitsu teacher, called Dave Turton. Dave had learnt to wrestle in the 1960's around the north west of England and had come up against some of the TV wrestlers, who were training at local gyms and wrestling clubs (Bert Royal was one), and Dave said that they would tie everyone in knots, and apply painful holds, if called upon.
He soon realised that many (most) of the TV wrestlers were actually incredibly skilled in wrestling in general, and submission wrestling in particular.
I grew up with WOS but got seduced by the steroid fake tan WWF. Interviews with Karl Gotch and Billy enlightenment me to the shooters, I know there were quite a few Yanks that were legit too. Kendo lives not far from me I've been trying to speak to him about the snake pit and shooters in wrestling.
Not sure when the Ring split and had the Ring Wrestling as a seperate publication.No link unfortunately
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Unknown member
Aug 01, 2023
Oh yes and there's that TVTimes feature from 1968 where they speak to a group of the boys and Billy is very much the locker-room leader. He comes across as quite a likeable funny bloke in that.
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Unknown member
Aug 01, 2023
There's a VERY good one from 1971 that Billy did for The Ring where he speaks highly of his old training partner Kendo Nagasaki. (He stops short of calling him Peter though.) I've seen it online in the past. Billy mostly talks about Riley's Gymin it.
I didn't realise boxing and wrestling were in the same magazine up till 1973 I thought it was up to the 50's. Do you have a link for this online?
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Unknown member
Aug 18, 2023
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Not sure if it's up online right now. I've seen it online in the distant past.He mostly talks about Billy Riley and the gym rather than professional wrestling. He mentions Kendo and says he's not quite in the same league as himself but pretty good.
Billy did a lot of catch-as-catch-can training, in his later years, so while they are not interviews, as such, you can find him showing people how to do certain things on Youtube.
Not sure when the Ring split and had the Ring Wrestling as a seperate publication.No link unfortunately
Oh yes and there's that TVTimes feature from 1968 where they speak to a group of the boys and Billy is very much the locker-room leader. He comes across as quite a likeable funny bloke in that.
There's a VERY good one from 1971 that Billy did for The Ring where he speaks highly of his old training partner Kendo Nagasaki. (He stops short of calling him Peter though.) I've seen it online in the past. Billy mostly talks about Riley's Gymin it.